Chain conveyer



Jan. 17, 1939; w. H. ROBINSON ET AL 2,144,547

0mm CONVEYER Filed Oct. '21, 1937 E 3%? a I I i K 5 5 M m l I in i.

I o a z l a o Inventor's 9 Their Attorney.

William H. Robinson, Jasper- E..An er'sson 1 UNITED STATES Patented Jan. 17, 1939 PATENT. OFFICE CHAIN CONVEYEB William HQRobinson, Schenectady, and Jasper E.

Anderson, Scotia, N. Y., assi gnors to General Electric Comp ny, a corporation of New York Application October 21, 1937, Serial No. 170,232

5 Claims. ((71. 198189) It is important for many purposes to employ chain conveyers for uninterruptedly conveying articles from one place or station to another. A prominent example is the use of such chains or conveyers for conveying sheathed welding electrodes or rods into and through furnaces operating at suitably high temperatures. For such purposes, the chain conveyer, for reasons not necessary to an understanding of our inventions, may be of great length, for example of the order of 2500 feet, as in one instance with which we are familiar. Because the electrodes or rods are relatively long, it is desirable, and in-many cases necessary, to use two such conveyer chains arranged side by side and moving in synchronism with the electrodes supported at or near their respective ends by the two conveyers, the electrodes bridging the space between them. It is important to make the pitch of the links of the chain relatively short as this has a material bearing in keeping the size of the furnace in which the conveyers are used within reasonable practical limits and also reduces the cost. As these conveyers may, and usually do have to pass vertically up and down over various rotating elements, such as sprocket wheels, within the furnace, it is important to have means thereon for receiving the electrodes or other articles and holding them in their proper respective positions while the conveyer is moving throughout. its course of travel. It is also important that the receiving and holding means for the articles being conveyed be of such a character that the articles. may freely enter and leave without causing interruption of the smooth passage of the conveyer.

The object of our invention is theprovislon of an improved chain conveyer which will fulfill the requirements above noted.

For a consideration of what we believe to be novel and our invention, attention is directed to the accompanying description and the claims appended thereto.

In the accompanying drawing which is illustrative of our invention, Fig. 1 is diagrammatic view of a chain conveyer mounted for use in a suitably heated furnace; Fig. 2 is a plan view of a short piece of the chain; Fig. 3 is a view in elevation of the same; Fig. 4 is a sectional view of saidchain, and Figs. 5, 6 and '7 are modifications.

In Fig. 1, the conveyer 6 is illustrated as passing over suitably driven sprocket wheels I located near the top of the furnace indicated by dotted lines and over idlers 8 near the bottom which have suitably suspended weights 9 to maintain a suitable tension on the conveyer. Guides l8 made of suitable material may be provided and located adjacent the pockets 19 to ensure against accidental displacement of the articles being conveyed. Desirably the guides are located near the conveyer but out of frictional .engagement therewith. r

The chain comprises a series of links I0 and II made of relatively thin material, such as punched steel, which are suitably hardened, after being bent to shape, to prevent undue wear. The links are pivotally united by hardened steel pins 12 which are fastened at their ends in the side members of the links In and freely pass through tubular bushings I 3 that are seated in and are fastened to the side members of links H. Each link is provided with a part M at the top which is integral with the side members and forms a flat connecting bridge between them for supporting the articles to be conveyed, the latter being indicated by the reference character l5. The articles may rest only on the side links, or on the bridge, or on both. The articles may difier considerably in diameter and desirably the bridges M are of suiificient size to receive and support them irrespective of the diameter. Each bridge has formed integrally therewith an outwardly projecting ear l6. These ears instead of being perpendicular to the fiat part of the bridge, may be slightly inclined so as to assist in preventing the articles Hi from rolling out of the space or pocket formed by the bridge l4 and the two adjacent ears it veyed be prevented from dropping or moving on to the conveyer from the supplying device in such manner as to get wedged between adjacent links and thus cause damage either to the articles themselves or to the conveyer. Injury to the articles while highly undesirable is not so important as preventing injury to the conveyer or blocking of it in such a manner that it cannot move smoothly as it should. To this end, the bridge I4 is provided with a tail piece I! which is curved on an arc struck from the axis of a pin I2 as a center, Fig. 4. The fiat part of the bridge is tangent or substantially so to the curved tail piece. The important thing is to ensure that the tail piece of one bridge shall be free to move under the bridge and ear of the adjacent link both when the conveyer moves over the sprocket wheel 1 and over the idler 8. The tail piece is relatively short so as not to strike the teeth of the sprockets I. In this connection, it is to be noted that as the conveyer moves over the sprockets, all of the ears i6 project radially outward from the axis of the sprocket whereas when it moves over'the idler 8, the ears project radially inward toward the axis of the idler, and also form the contact means between the peripheral surface or the idler and the conveyer. This means that in the former case, the pockets or spaces between adjacent ears open up to a limited extent and in the latter case, close to a limited extent. However, by using one ear and a'tail piece for each bridge, the maximum space or pocket for articles is provided for a chain of given pitch, and also there is no space between links into which an article to be conveyed may inadvertently enter. The arrangement described has the further advantage that articles of various sizes may be conveyed by the same conveyer whether small or large, the only limitation being that their size shall be slightly less than the pitch of the ears and such that they do not prevent the ears from moving to the proper positions as the conveyer moves over the idler. Should the conveyer be used when no idlers are employed,

then the articles may have a size only slightly I less than the pitch distance between ears. Reference has been made to round articles but obviously articles of other shapes may be conveyed.

In Fig. 5 is shown a slight modification in which the ears I6 instead of being slightly inclined, as shown in Fig. 4, are perpendicular to a horizontal plane passing through the axes of the pivots of the chain links. This arrangement is useful where the conveyer moves upwardly over a sprocket on one side and downwardly on the other side. This right angle arrangement acts to prevent the articles from rolling or moving outwardly from the bottom of the pockets and dragging on guide surfaces which may be located adjacent the ends of the ears.

In Fig. 6 is illustrated a modified form of ear which is designed to retain the articles being conveyed whether the conveyer is moving in one direction or the other, in other words, forward or backward. The car it on its front face is inclined to the left so that the articles being conveyed when the conveyer is moving from right to left tend to move to the right and thus be held between the bridge l4 and the inclined front surface of the ear. The outer end 20 of the ear is shaped, bent or inclined rearwardly so that when the conveyer is moving from left to right the articles being conveyed are caught by the back side of the ear and held from falling out of the pocket by the curved end. Briefly stated, in this construction the ears are so shaped or formed that they serve as article retaining means irrespective of the direction of movement of the conveyer. The shape of the ear illustrated is well adapted for the purpose but modifications of the shape may be made without departing from our invention, provided the ears serve as retaining means for articles whether the conveyer is moving in one direction or the other.

. In some instances, due-to the character of the articles being conveyed, it is desirable to provide the-surfaces of the ears and bridge with a coating or covering to protect the articles from injury which is desirably of a material which has some cushioning effect. Also the material should be of such character that the articles being conveyed will not stick thereto. For some'purposes the covering may be of relatively thin rubber or of synthetic materials such as are or may be available from time to time. In Fig. 7 is shown a link, the bridge, ear and tail piece having a relatively thin coating 2! which is desirably of material having some resiliency of which rubber may be regarded as an example but not as a limitation of our invention.

The conveyer is designed for continuous movement and suitable means may be employed to feed the articles to and remove them from the conveyer.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the distance between ears is the maximum for a chain of given pitch and for that reason relatively larger articles may be conveyed than would be the case if both ears were on the same bridge. The use of the tails on the bridges eliminates the possibility of articles being caught between links in a manner to cause a jam with consequent injury to the articles and to the conveyer. The arrangement also reduces the length and cost of the conveyer chains for a given installation. Because of the wide spacing between ears, the

loading and unloading of the conveyer is facilitated. The arrangement also permits of the use of smaller sprockets and idlers than with conveyer constructions heretofore in use. Using small sprockets means that a greater length of chain may be used in an oven or furnace of given size and a greater number of articles conveyed.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

l. A conveyer chain comprising pivotally connected links, each link having side members, a means connecting the members to hold them in parallel relation, an ear extending outwardly from the means, and a tail piece on the means extending under the ear of an adjacent link and also under a portion of the connecting means thereof of an adjacent link, the adjacent ears of the two links and the connecting means of one link defining a pocket for the reception of articles to be conveyed.

2. A conveyer chain comprising pivotally connected links, each link having side members, a bridge connecting the members, an ear extending outwardly from the bridge at one end, and a tail piece on the bridge at the end opposite from the ear, which extends under the ear and a portion of the bridge of an adjacent link, the part of the tail piece located under the bridge being so shaped that as the chain is bent in passing over a cylindrical element, the tail piece is free to move back and forth under the ear and bridge, the adjacent ears of two links and the bridge of one link defining a pocket for the reception of articles, which pocket is always closed at the bottom.

3. A conveyer chain comprising pivotally connected links, each link having side; members, a bridge integral with and connecting the members, an ear extending outwardly from one end of the bridge and substantially perpendicular thereto;

nected links, each link having side members, a

bridge means connecting themembers to hold them in parallel relation, an ear extending outwardly from the bridge means and slightly inclined with respect thereto, a tail piece on the bridge means, the outer end of which extends between the side members of an adjacent link and lation, a tail piece forming a part of thebridge located between the side member of an adjacent link and movable with respect thereto, the tail piece being in spaced relation to the walls of the members, and an ear extending upwardly from the bridge at the end opposite said tail piece and located over the tail piece of an adjacent link, each two ears located on adjacent links together with a bridge defining a pocket, the ears having means on both of their front and rear faces to receive and hold articles from accidentally being 10 discharged from the conveyer.

WILLIAM H. ROBINSON. JASPER E. ANDERSON. 

